tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-168914882009-08-11T14:36:07.547+09:00my two year working and living experince in japanritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05446197331779431491ritamangan@gmail.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16891488.post-1155829993858166712006-08-18T00:52:00.001+09:002008-10-23T10:24:08.576+09:00

Thats right... I went to Disney Sea during my last week in Japan with Rich.Tokyo Disney was on my to do list before I left Japan.. It was a lot fun, and scary rides too ;)Our tickets included 1st class (my first and last time in the ultimate 1st class on the Bullet Train / Shinkansen) on the 6.30 am bullet train.The forecast was rain... but the afternoon was gorgeous, perfect weather. Due to the

ritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05446197331779431491ritamangan@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16891488.post-1155829928949910162006-08-18T00:26:00.007+09:002008-10-23T10:38:24.749+09:00

My successor is called Kyla, from the UK. She'll be the new JET replacing me, and I had 2 weeks to clean my apartment....I have cleaned my apartment, and packed 5 boxes for home. Cleaning took a whole day, with the help of my Japanese host mother, Fujikura-san. I can't belived she cleaned my toilet!! Luckily I keep keep it clean.. :-pHpwever, the floor needed a good scrubbing... I wanted to keep

ritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05446197331779431491ritamangan@gmail.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16891488.post-1155828370824116912006-08-17T22:34:00.000+09:002006-08-18T00:26:10.996+09:00

Final week at schoolI gave my goodbye speech at my base school on July 28th. It was all in Japanese. I had been preparing the speech for over a month, but nothing prepared to the way I felt that day, saying goodbye to 800 students and 50 teachers, but I managed to save my tears until the end.I received a bunch of flowers, presented by 2 student council members. It was all quite touching really.

ritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05446197331779431491ritamangan@gmail.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16891488.post-1154097476020016252006-07-28T23:26:00.000+09:002006-07-28T23:37:56.053+09:00

On the ferry from Okinawa main island to Zamami island I got terribly burned by the strong sun. I didnt put sun screen on. Theres no excuse really, but I just didnt realise how far south we were, and how strong the sun was at that time of day.So the next few days my shoulders, back and chest was in so much pain I couldnt even touch it. To make it worse, I couldnt even lie down with the pain,

ritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05446197331779431491ritamangan@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16891488.post-1154096719622603242006-07-28T22:54:00.000+09:002006-07-28T23:25:52.493+09:00

ritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05446197331779431491ritamangan@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16891488.post-1148039755109643982006-05-19T20:49:00.000+09:002006-05-31T22:25:56.816+09:00

In our spare time at Nagano Nishi High School, we like to play around. I think the teachers think Jay and I are a little bit crazy.During the spring vacation Jay and I interview all the English teachers (12 of them) and them made a little profile of them to go on the English bulletin board outside the office. We included pictures of them, and also an anime character that fits their profile.When

ritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05446197331779431491ritamangan@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16891488.post-1148037139322351352006-05-19T18:33:00.000+09:002006-05-19T20:35:45.456+09:00

Some of you have been wondering if I'm still alive, (thanks Alix, Ed) be sure to know that I am well. I have just been super duper busy lately. The new school year began April, and classes started mid April. Jay (the other AET at my school) and I have been super busy planning our English classes, be it Oral Communication, Current English, Global Educationa or Debate. On top of that, I have been

ritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05446197331779431491ritamangan@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16891488.post-1145855875888399222006-04-24T13:57:00.000+09:002006-04-29T00:25:40.706+09:00

I joined more than 15,000 in Chiba (near Tokyo) to see one man. His name is Jack Johnson. The train from Tokyo ward area to Chiba was crowded with parents and their children aswell, but they went to Tokyo Disneyland. 30 minutes later, off the train, we joined the trail of people to see Jack. The concert was awesome!!! We were about a third from the front, and packed in like sardines. I was lucky

ritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05446197331779431491ritamangan@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16891488.post-1143641025690532532006-03-29T22:13:00.000+09:002006-03-29T23:19:23.056+09:00

Why the hell not!I was pondering for so long. Maybe I should have explored more of Japan during the spring vacation, but NZ had something else that I wanted to see, somebody that is. That person is Alexis, and her boyfriend, Wallace. Alexis, those of you who don't know, is my great friend from Uni and we lived together throughout our time in Hull. The flight to New Zealand was long, 16 hours

ritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05446197331779431491ritamangan@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16891488.post-1143457032626262562006-03-27T19:43:00.000+09:002006-03-29T23:22:23.136+09:00

You like my new hair?I'd been looking forward to their wedding for about 6 months. Unfortunately the date clashed with Graduation ceremony at my High School. It was a hard toss, but I really wanted to a Japanese wedding.The ceremony in the morning was a Japanese style, and I was honoured to be there. In the afternoon it was a western style dinner party, and to follow was karaoke. The whole day

ritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05446197331779431491ritamangan@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16891488.post-1140589813860612402006-02-22T15:19:00.000+09:002006-02-22T23:05:54.003+09:00

Or you could say, very cold and very hot. Nagano is famous for its mountains and onsen (hot springs) and the 1998 Winter Olympics. In winter most of us make our way to one of the many ski resorts that Nagano offers, we're spoilt for choice. The most popular resorts are in Hakuba and Shigakogen. A group of us went snow boarding last weekend to Shigakogen, famous for onsens and for snow monkeys.

ritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05446197331779431491ritamangan@gmail.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16891488.post-1140443175988088672006-02-20T22:20:00.000+09:002006-02-22T15:17:34.946+09:00

Those of us leaving the JET programme made our way to Yokohama from all over Japan. A conference was held for the 'returners'. So, the 3 British girls from Nagano, Alice, Lucy and myself, took a little trip not far from Tokyo, to Yokohama. This was a conference we actually wanted to be at. I saw a few old faces from the summer holiday in Hokkaido. The conference was to prepare us about what to

ritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05446197331779431491ritamangan@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16891488.post-1140439828951685752006-02-20T21:13:00.000+09:002006-02-20T22:19:38.550+09:00

As a memorial for the Nagano Olympics, Zenkoji temple was lit up using the 5 coulours of the Olympic rings. The festival lasted a week, and the street up to the temple was lined with decorated lanterns. They were very fancy lanterns. There were smaller temples on the side open for the public to experience traditional temple meals. My friend Mayumi reserved 6 places for her friends and for

ritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05446197331779431491ritamangan@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16891488.post-1139101077692813722006-02-05T09:47:00.000+09:002006-03-02T13:03:41.436+09:00

Each February 3rd in Japan is known as setsubun. The word setsubun literally means a division of the seasons, since it is traditionally held that this time of year marks the beginning of the "eve of Spring."So I decided to go to Zenkoji temple, conveniently next to my school, to experience the ceremony. Crowds starting to gather from about 12.30pm and the beans were thrown at 1.50pm. By 2.15pm I

ritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05446197331779431491ritamangan@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16891488.post-1131342906320943062005-11-07T14:41:00.000+09:002005-11-19T14:56:55.106+09:00

Those weekends. Those much cherished weekends. My last two weekends were with high school students who just love to speak English. This weekend was Debate, and the previous weekend was English Camp with Bundai Senior High School, which you'll read in English fanatics. Here are the students arriving at the train station at 9.30 am, after a 3 hour journey. So, Debate then. What's Debate I hear you

ritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05446197331779431491ritamangan@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16891488.post-1131265931013805512005-11-06T15:40:00.000+09:002005-11-25T21:11:42.500+09:00

Erika, a friend, invited me for an English Camp with her and a few Japanese English Teachers. Knowing this opportunity would allow me to meet students from a different school, and that it would be at Nozawa Onsen (hot spring), I jumped at the chance. But there was a catch, Erika wanted me to bring another male to the camp, she wanted it to be fair, 2 ladies and 2 men, with all the female students

ritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05446197331779431491ritamangan@gmail.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16891488.post-1130133920944674122005-10-24T15:02:00.000+09:002005-10-24T15:07:19.873+09:00

You might be thinking lots of beer and dancing. Nope, this is slightly different. Last Friday we had a formal meeting, a pre-mid year conference meeting. Basically an excuse to meet people we hadn't yet met. The after party was a group of 20 of us went to an Izakaya. This is Alice, afraid at where Rich's hand was doing...Saturday night, Mike and Kirk's band was playing in Matsumoto. That's an

ritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05446197331779431491ritamangan@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16891488.post-1130131524963945932005-10-24T13:43:00.000+09:002005-10-24T14:25:24.986+09:00

If you didn't know already, I am the new Jetsetter editor, since August. Jetsetter is a monthly magazine that we have for JETs in our Prefecture. The magazine's contents includes anything that fellow JETs want to write about. There are 3 editors in all. Alice, our associate editor, and Sarah our creative editor. I, the editor also have the responsibility of doing 'The Interview'.This month was a

ritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05446197331779431491ritamangan@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16891488.post-1129194215753213882005-10-13T15:52:00.000+09:002005-10-24T13:43:01.200+09:00

In my Current English class, I have the power to do whatever I like with the 10 students. We can have a chat about anything, from our weekends to debates about ipods and Sony mp3 players.A while i decided that we needed to get out of the classroom. So we went for a walk into the city to do an interview with a foreigners. But unfortunately, late morning on a Thursday, foreigners were a little

ritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05446197331779431491ritamangan@gmail.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16891488.post-1128955409865682572005-10-12T13:20:00.000+09:002005-10-11T22:16:56.116+09:00

The summer is well and truly over. Although the weather was a little too hot for comfort, it was the best season at school. The reason being the school festival, Kajinoha Bunkasai. The students took more than 2 months preparing for this most exciting school event. I had heard do much about last year's that even I was looking forward to it. So that's the entrance for the 3 day festival. This is

ritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05446197331779431491ritamangan@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16891488.post-1128516275644152542005-10-06T13:45:00.000+09:002005-10-05T21:44:35.653+09:00

This is a little late to write about... but it's better late than never. So I turned 22 on July 15th, and I love the photos that Alice took, so I wanted to share them.For my birthday, I had a BBQ at Alice's house in Ueda. Her house is more of a party place than my apartment, and of course has a garden for the BBQ. It was a lot of fun and a lot of people came, and I was surprised at some new faces

ritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05446197331779431491ritamangan@gmail.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16891488.post-1127653293939618912005-09-26T14:20:00.000+09:002005-10-05T21:17:08.386+09:00

It has been a month filled with late nights. This month had two 3 day weekends. The first one was spent in Tokyo when my friend came to visit. This coincided with Alice's friend from home too, so we spent most of our time together. Tokyo is a different experience every time I go. We did so much walking, went to huge parks, such as Yoyogi in Harajuku, famous for the Goth dressers(right picture).

ritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05446197331779431491ritamangan@gmail.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16891488.post-1127135395576253022005-09-19T21:51:00.000+09:002005-09-25T19:26:56.526+09:00

What a hectic month. I've now been in a Japan just a little over a year, and the work as a 2nd year JET begins. For my summer vacation I spent 2 weeks at a Japanese Language course in Hokkaido, Sapporo. It was hard work, but i also had a lot of fun, travelling and meeting new people. I had a host family called Shimizu san, Yukiko (mother) and Kenji (father). They were very kind to me, and we

ritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05446197331779431491ritamangan@gmail.com0